Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This, this, this, this is Mythical.
I'm going to start thinking about things like inflammation. I went down to Whole Foods the other day. I got turmeric capsules, and I take them every morning now. That was an adult. I know. I've been thinking about how do I start eating healthier in ways I didn't think about before. Stuff like grass-fed beef. You know, cows that haven't been fed corn. And reduces the saturated fat. And so I have been shopping a lot at Whole Foods because they have such an incredible selection of that. I had a grass-fed skirt steak the other day. Ugh.
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Pizza? Pizza pizza! This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Pizza pizza! Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What?
Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Nicole Inaydi. Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. You know, you can stop now. That was pretty good, though. I kind of like the idea of Little Caesar's Caesarian mascot here, only speaking like a Pokemon. Like, I think they should work him into the Pokemon video games. Was Caesar little?
Uh, average height back then was a lot lower just due to general like nutrition and evolution. So, yeah. Litterer than Napoleon, you would say? You know, Caesar, what I find interesting, bear with me here. We'll talk about little Caesars. Just give us a second. We haven't seen each other in like 45 minutes, so we just need to debrief real quick. Give us a second. So Caesar salad, right? Love it. You know, it's named after Caesar. Cardini. You know, the term Caesar in Latin, it translates the same to say the Russian Caesar.
Czar. Oh, really? You'll see it's spelled C-Z-A-R sometimes. Okay, okay. It's a Cyrillic alphabet, but Czar. Also, Kaiser in German. Comes from Czar. It's the same word as Caesar and Czar. So Caesar salad and Kaiser roll. You could create the ultimate sort of empirical sandwich if you wanted to.
This is why I struggle to connect with other people sometimes because to me, that was maybe the most interesting thing in the world. That was the most profound thing you've said. Caesar salad and Kaiser roll. Yeah, I think that's... Profound, profound. You are very, very intelligent. But we're going to debate which one's better, Little Caesars or
Pizza Hut. So save your intelligence for later. Okay, so we have done Pizza Hut versus Domino's. Which was great. In the past. And when we do things like this, we try and have two contemporaries together. We think it's fair. And so we would think of Domino's and Pizza Hut to me as the top two contemporaries in pizza. That's not true anymore. I guess not, huh? We now have what is called a monopolar power distribution system.
So, okay, let me break this down for you. So we used to have in the world a multipolar power distribution in, say, World War II. Some people argue that's one of the causes of World War II. There were too many large empires that had too much power. They sort of had to struggle it out against each other. And that's obviously a gross oversimplification. But multipolar power distribution is...
After World War II, you ended up with a bipolar power distribution between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the fall of the Soviet Union, people argued that we were in a monopolar power distribution of the United States being the world's power. And a lot of people thought that if mutually assured destruction kept the world safe-ish in a bipolar power distribution…
they called it the Pax Americana or the American Peace. Of course, we were launching proxy wars all over the world in a monopolar power distribution. I think now we're seeing that monopolar power distribution dissipate. Really interesting to see where the world goes today. What does this have to do with pizza? Domino's now sells something like nine, they've done nine billion dollars. Domino's is the American empire. This is like America in like 2004. Okay. Right? So Domino's now sells so much more pizza than Pizza Hut. They,
They, I think, took over in like 2015 was the first year they outsold Pizza Hut. But basically now Little Caesars and Pizza Hut are so much closer to each other than Pizza Hut is to Domino's. I have the actual stats here. Domino's did $9 billion in sales. This is 2023 numbers. Pizza Hut, $5.6 billion. Damn. Little Caesars, $4.5 billion. There you go. And then you have the little like...
Austria-Hungary Papa John's. Round table. No, but literally, there's only four. Like, Papa John's, Little Caesars, and Pizza Hut are somewhat close to each other now. Domino's is super far away. And then at fifth in America, do you know what? Guess what the fifth highest selling pizza is. Okay, did you already say Papa John's? Yeah.
Because then you get into like regional chains and I don't think I've had like any of them. I don't know. Tell me, tell me. Marcos. Never heard of it. And then Papa Murphy's is six. Never heard of it. There's so many out there. Mellow Mushroom. There's Jets. But there's all these ones fighting for like just under a billion dollars in sales, which is still so much pizza. So much money. But yeah, there's really like four major places.
Powers and Domino's, the main one, and now Little Caesars and Pizza Hut. Little Caesars also gaining ground on Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut, they invested so much money in trying to have sit-down restaurants. You know, I never went to one. I've never been to a sit-down Pizza Hut, and I regret it with every fiber of my being. Pizza Hut salad bar, come back to me. Pizza Hut salad bar.
You were my childhood. Are you crooning? It inspires me to croon. Are you crooning? How good the Pizza Hut salad bar. That was my childhood, though. It was like you go under a red hut.
A red roof, which they hired like a well-known architect. The Pizza Hut was a hut with a red roof. Yes. Domino's, on the other hand, was always started to just be a delivery restaurant, effectively. And then Little Caesars started around the same time as Pizza Hut did. Little Caesars is from Detroit. The Illich family started. Awesome guy, right? Awesome guy. Paid Rosa Parks' rent for her entire life. We love Little Caesars. But yeah, now these are the two contemporaries. And I don't think I've bought...
a pizza that wasn't a hot and ready from Little Caesars in the last decade? The first and only time I had a hot and ready pizza was when I was dating this guy at community college.
And I went to his house and then we saw a scary movie and then we went and got a Little Caesars hot and ready after the movie. And that's the only experience I have with Little Caesars until I started working here. I remember the best hot and ready pizza I ever had. It was like freshman year of college. Of course, we're all dead broke living on student loans. Right. We like took a day trip from Santa Barbara down to L.A. just driving around, not eating anything, messing around at the beach. Yeah.
And we found a Little Caesars glowing like an oasis in the middle of the desert. Just beautiful. We just ate it on the roof of my 95 Ford Taurus. So good, huh? Six people crammed in there. You know, paid ten total dollars for two large pizzas. Right. That's really beautiful. Yeah, yeah. So I have a lot of nostalgia for Little Caesars. Pizza, on the other hand, if I'm...
If I'm ordering full-price pizza that is not hot and ready, I'm generally going Domino's if I'm getting it from a chain. Same, same. We are Domino's family. But that said, we have a lot of different Little Caesars and pizza treats. Nicole, tell them about it. So we try to order side-by-side contemporaries for each pizza. So we have the first pizza we're going to try is a thin crust cheese pizza a la a birthday party. That was the vibe. I was thinking of a children's birthday party where they get the thin crust pizza.
And are you okay? Are you preparing yourself for all the sodium you're about to eat? There was caffeine in that cup and I need it for the rest of the day. Oh, great. Okay. So I'm going to go ahead and reveal the Pizza Hut, the thin crust. Oh, we already have a major difference. Major difference. The Pizza Hut pizza, the thin crust, is currently sliced like little pizza slices. This is matzo. It's very, very matzo. This is matzo. I do like this though, but I was always raised to have it
cut like the Little Caesars one in the little squares. I think, does Domino's still cut there? Because I associate thin crust with cutting the squares, and this looks like a Chicago tavern-style pizza, right? It really does. This is actually, to me, Little Caesars is much more of a proper thin crust pizza in my book, what I imagine a thin crust pizza to be. I'm not talking Neapolitan, I'm not talking New York, whatever. But like this tavern-style where there's no crust, right? Yeah, it's to the edge. You spread the sauce to the edge.
How do you... Have you enjoyed this Pizza Hut one? Because I'm not really loving it. I'm not digging it. I want it in a little square. Could I have requested it in a little square? Yeah, but I thought it would automatically come like that. We take it how they give it to us. I will say, the Pizza Hut, this is very obviously cut from a machine because you can see the seam right there. But what's fascinating about this to me...
When you take a yeasted dough and you thin it out so much, you bake it, it creates two layers in Sardinia. They call this pane lento or pane carrazao. They used to give it to shepherds. They'd eat it with their pecorino cheese. So this is like kind of a cool little crust back there, but... Very unique. I've never had this kind of sensation with a pizza before. Yeah, that's pane carrazao. Shout out to all my Jordanian listeners. All of them. All three of them. Pretty unsuccessful as a pizza. I think the pizza hit cheese...
There's like a unique smell to Pizza Hut cheese. I think it's low, what is it? Low moisture skim milk mozzarella. Yeah, but it's like, you know, it's the terroir of the factory that they're getting it made from. You know what I mean? The terroir of the factory. Every factory. It's like the light that's filtering in in Wichita, Kansas, which I think is where the Pizza Hut's originally from. I'm not loving it at all. Well, good, because that's McDonald's phrase. Yeah.
No, this is something that I would... Is it almost undercooked and overcooked at the same time? I agree with that entirely. That's the vibe I'm getting from the Pizza Hut thin crust cheese pizza. There's a certain amount of spite in that thin crust, right? It's like we don't want you to order a thin crust. We're Pizza Hut. We invented the pan pizza, right?
It's like they don't want you to order that, so they're going to trick you into giving you bad pizza. You know what? I think you're telling the truth right now. Can you hand me a piece in the middle, please? I want a middle piece. Oh, my God. Do you eat a filet? Yeah, always. Well, not if you put all your hands. What did you expect me to grab with little ice tongs? You put 45% of your hands on my pizza. Yeah, you can actually see the marks on my hands with the grease. So this, I will say the top looks overcooked.
Overcooked. I think this top looks perfect. But I like it like that. There's a slight leopard spotting on the top. The Pizza Hut pizza was very, very blonde. This little Caesar's pizza, especially for a thin crust, you get some nice leopard spotting on that cheese. Right. And.
And I don't know, I'm not looking for like beautiful, lightly melted mozzarella di buffalo on my fast food pizza, right? I want salty caramelized cheese on there. This folds a lot better too. I don't love... The fold on the pizza hut? To me, a thin crust pizza with all due respect to St. Louis, we don't need to go there. I did have St. Louis style pizza when I was in St. Louis for the tour. Did anybody spit on you?
No, I did have some weird experiences in St. Louis. I feel like a lot of people have weird experiences in St. Louis. Did I have the weirdest experiences? Was that Missouri? I ended up in like an illegal hookah bar where I paid for everything in cash app. I don't know, man. Is St. Louis in Missouri? Yes. Okay, cool. Yes, it is. Big mafia influence in St. Louis. A lot of Italian food. I had some good arrepas there too.
Nothing more Italian than a rapist. Lovely people. And some Italian food, too. I don't love the cracker-like dough of Pizza Hut. I think the cracker-like dough doesn't do it any favors, especially with the blonde cheese. This now, we're talking about the sauce has baked into the cheese, has baked into the crust, made a delicious, almost like we love bread goo here. It's almost like bread goo pizza. The bottom is foldable.
Almost like a yoga mat, but it's pleasant. It's a more pleasant eating experience than the Pizza Hut one. There's still a nice chew to the crust on Little Caesars. Somehow the Pizza Hut, it feels thinner, but it looks thicker. Thicker? If you fold the Pizza Hut. It doesn't do it. No. It's not doing it for me. There's a wonderful gluteny chew to the Little Caesars one. Also, Little Caesars sauce is...
It's very sweet. Very intense tomato flavor. 100%. In a way that I like. Right. The pizza eats a lot saltier. Totally. In a way that normally I think I'd love, but it just doesn't do it for me. Little Caesars easily wins round one. Easily. Easily. Well done, Little Caesars. I was not anticipating that. How about you give me, you take the boxes and put them on the floor next to you. I'll put the boxes next to me. Crack open the next Zala. Okay, so the next one. So we went ahead and we got Pepperoni Lovers, not Fighters.
And then we got a build-your-own from Little Caesars with pepperoni on it. Pepperoni. These pizzas, why do they look more similar than I remember them looking? I don't know. Well, there is something about the crust on... Do you want to start? Let's start with Pizza Hut. Let's start with Pizza Hut. The crust has a smattering of cheese on it, which I find very, very sexy. Just a grease-covered bottom on Pizza Hut. So this isn't... How do they describe this pizza? This is a hand-tossed pizza. Hand-tossed pizza. Yes, yes. This is their hand-tossed pizza. They all use different...
Different nomenclature for the different pizza styles, much like in Naples. Very delicious. How do you feel about their pepperoni? You haven't even gone there yet. You're just eating the crust. I was eating the crust. I want to get a good feel for Pizza's crust. Have you ever heard that when you smell bread dough or pizza crust, whatever, you shouldn't smell yeast? No. Because the yeast should have all been eaten.
No. By that point? Well, I don't know if I've ever heard that before, but I'm a sourdough girl, so all of my bread smells yeasty. What does it smell like? I don't know. But sometimes I feel like I can smell raw yeast in bread. Not getting that particularly. But that's what I was checking for. I like to smell all my foods. I still eat a roni. I'm just a little sensory-seeking boy, you know? I was a sensory-seeking boy once. That's all. What?
Come on, buddy. Bro, this pizza is like a gusher. It's really good. It's incredible. It's really good. Isolate-a-roni. Isolate-a-roni. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I thought you were saying one word. Isolate-a-roni. I got a roni. Their pepperoni is good. Why is the bottom saturated in some sort of butter-like flavor?
Maybe they're trying to be like Domino's and do the garlic butter thing without doing the garlic butter thing, their own weird butter thing. We've talked about this a lot, but I feel like Domino's in, I think, was it 2008? Was it that early? Or was it late? Anyways, they decided to slather all their crust in garlic butter, and it's just, I think that's the reason they've exploded. They won. That's why they won. That's why they won. Okay, I'll isolate a roni. These are...
Are these very different Ronis? They are to me. They look different. They're quite different. Pizza Hut's pepperoni is a lot lighter. It's so funny. Pizza Hut's pepperoni is like what I picture pepperoni. Me too. As in my mind is like a cartoon. I grew up eating, I think, so much more Pizza Hut. Like schools. Like our school was. Sure. Pizza Hut school? Yeah. We were at Pizza Hut school. Yeah. It's a more, it's diaphanous. It's thin. It's almost like a, like a scalloped skirt. Wow. We're so funny. Diaphanous. Like Cara Delevingne's wings in Carnival Row.
Why did nobody watch Carnival Row? That was a great show. I mean, it was bad, but I love Cara Delevingne. And Orlando Bloom, hot, hot stuff. Little Seas Pepperoni tastes way better. Less than... Oh my god, really? Yeah. Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't offer you one here. I'll take the one that I stole the pepperoni off of. Very, what a gentleman. Just like Orlando Bloom in Carnival Row, he's such a gentleman. He treats the fairies with respect. I'm guessing he doesn't.
Sorry, I was trying to show you my undercarriage. Well, I will say this. The Pizza Hut undercarriage, beautiful golden brown. Wow, stunning. The Little Caesars leaves me wanting more. A lot more. Something happened to mine. There was an air pocket in my piece right here. And I want to grab a new piece to give it a more fair shot, but they gave me this piece. The rest of the undercarriage looks pretty well browned. Honestly, this looks like a pizza dough that is like overproofed in a way.
Or not overproofed. It's been overworked. Yes. You know what I mean? You can almost see the gluten structures. The striations? Yeah, the striations. You don't want that. No. No.
Pizza, they're using machines to do all this stuff, which maybe Little Caesars is too. But like, you ever see that? There's that dude that works at Papa John's that's big on TikTok. He's like kind of weirdly, he's like very aggressive. I'm not on TikTok as much as you think I am. I'm on Instagram Reels more. Well, he's on Instagram Reels too. People syndicate their content everywhere. But have you seen the Papa John's guy on the Scrooley Scrooley app? No. There's a guy who does it and they're like hand tossing their pizzas at Papa John's. They say this is a hand toss, but it certainly feels machine tossed. I don't like that pizza at all. Little Caesars? I don't like it at all.
at all. This is the hot and ready, right? Yeah, it is. Like your standard, not thin crust, not deep dish. I really don't like it. I'm sorry. This would give me heartburn. The Little Caesars pizza will give me heartburn. And I feel like I would stop eating it. I think the pepperoni and the sauce are in conflict with one another.
The Pizza Hut pizza, much more harmonious. The Pizza Hut pizza, all of Pizza Hut's pizza doughs, they're so logged in oil. They're so spongy. You can say spongy. You can also say focaccia-like, right? But it's good. It's good. I like that. This tastes almost weirdly homemade in a way because it's...
I find a lot of people when they make homemade pizza doughs, do you remember the first pizza dough that you made in Mythical Kitchen? The Martha Stewart one? Martha Stewart one. And I was like, hey, never use that recipe again. Yeah, I still use it. Because it's so bready and focaccia-like. And so when I'm like making a pizza at home, I'm kneading the hell out of the dough, cooking it super hot, not doing a big second proof because I want that chew in pizza. That said...
This is, like, really delicious. Right. It is really delicious. There's really kind of, like, clean flavor in that. You get all that, whatever that fake butter margarine-esque stuff on the bottom is. My lips are very saturated. You can also see, like, the crackle of, like, the semolina. Yeah, it's pretty. Well, there's also, isn't there a crackle of semolina? There is, too. I actually really like, I think the Little Caesars is really good, too. Maybe we are just starving because we are. Yeah, we didn't have lunch today. Did you see me eat a whole cucumber? No. No.
I just, I went raw, dude. Sometimes you do. I didn't hold it. No, but I didn't slice it or nothing. I just went, I ate it like a, like you're eating a big old corn dog. That's good. What do you mean? I don't know. I'm proud of you. Look at you getting your veggies in. Um, I think Pizza Hut wins this one. 1000%. I'm so sorry. I'm, I'm not nearly as convinced as you. I think the Little Caesars Hot and Ready, this is...
A lot of people have had different experiences at Little Caesars. This is a pretty damn good Little Caesars. I've had much worse Little Caesars. Really? Sorry. Than this. Uh-huh. I'm really enjoying what I'm tasting this pizza. There's part of me now that's like really appreciating the sweetness and the concentration of Little Caesars sauce. Okay. You know what I mean? That I think gives a great contrast to the pepperoni. That said. I think they're in conflict with each other. I don't think it's a harmonious bite. I think the Pizza Hut is a much more harmonious bite.
I think it's part of the conflict that I really enjoy. So you enjoy conflict? The spicy, of course. Yeah, the push and pull. You got to have the Serge to have the Darren. With food? With food too, yeah.
Dude, like, it's like acidic and fatty, spicy and sweet. But you're eating takeout pizza. You don't, you, are you always, I'm looking for harmony and peace when I'm eating. Aren't you the one that likes honey on your pepperoni pizza? Sometimes. When I'm out and about, when I'm out and about, when I'm ordering for, like, a game at my house, you think I'm gonna care about... Getting the hot honey pizza for the big game. No, I'm not doing that. I will concede this to pizza. It is close. I do love the focaccia-ness on the pizza. Yeah. But that said, like...
This is a great pizza. It is very good. It is very good. And I've had a lot of local spots that don't do this good. Well, there's also probably a lot of ghost kitchens making a lot of garbage out there now for when you order delivery. True, true, true.
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What's the third pizza? Well, the third pizza is their, from Pizza Hut, is their pan pizza. Went ahead and got sausage and mushroom and green peppers. And then we got the deep dish from Little Caesars with the same combination of toppings. Why do both of these make me sad?
Because they don't look like in the commercials, I think. I think that's what's getting to you. Okay, so Pizza Hut's pan pizza. Iconic. Iconic. They redid the recipe, what, maybe like five years ago? They did? They completely redid the recipe. They said it's more Pizza Hut-y than ever, but I haven't had it in a long time. I'm curious how this holds up because I haven't eaten a Pizza Hut pan pizza since they redid the recipe a while ago. Well, I will say the crust is less even than their hand-tossed.
Why does their crust taste like that? Oh my god, it's so yeasty. I can taste the yeast in this and it is not pleasant.
But the toppings make up for it. Pizza Hut pan pizza is like a very silly anachronism to me, right? It doesn't feel in place for 2025. Mm-hmm. You know? Very vintage and nostalgic. Very vintage. It's so doughy, man. I mean, this was pizza when I grew up. Mm-hmm. It was this and school lunch pizza were the two pizzas that I would have eaten most growing up, right? Mm-hmm. Now this tastes so strange. There's this like big layer of uncooked dough underneath the sauce. This is bread goo. That's bread goo, but like not in a way that I like. But not good.
It's bad, bad bread goo. Sounds like a Frank Zappa song. I'm just high out of his mind. It's like bubblegum-y. Yeah, this is really bizarre. Dude, I don't know if there's any room in my life for pan pizza anymore. I love a deep dish. I love a Detroit. I'm curious to see how Little Caesar stacks up. It tastes like a kid. It tastes like childhood. It does. This tastes like if you told me this is the national pizza of Moldova. You'd believe it. I'd believe you. I'd be like, yeah, it tastes like Moldovan pizza. They have different...
reference points than I do. So much yeast! Oh my god! Um, I don't know if we're gonna... Well, let's see. This is just the Little Caesars deep dish pizza. I've had this before. I've never had this before. I once ate a whole deep dish pizza on the way back from a track meet. Sausage at Little Caesars, slightly saltier, slightly better seasoned. But they're not as globular. I love little fast food pizza sausage balls. They think might be the best food on the planet.
I wish I could eat them like popcorn at the movie theater. Do you think that... I'm going to be watching Baby Girl tossing sausage back. Nicole, you're saying? Did you see Baby Girl? No. Oh, it's so good. Yeah? Oh my God, you need to watch Baby Girl. I'm taking myself on a solo date to see The Last Showgirl on Saturday at 11.20 a.m. Oh, great. Pam Anderson. It's solo. I don't want to take away your... I know, but you can go to another theater. And see another movie? Mm-hmm. Why would I do that? Don't say I never reach out trying to be famous. What would we talk about after?
What, you want me to see Nosferatu while you watch The Last Showgirl? Someone has to. I don't like it. This pizza leaves me wanting more. What about you? Pretty bummed out. Pretty bummed out. This, in no way is this deep dish. I mean, one, some people refer to, like, Sicilian or Detroit style as deep dish pizza. To me, like, deep dish is Chicago style, which is very unique. And then Detroit and Sicilian are either Detroit and Sicilian. Little Caesars comes from Detroit. And so you'd think that they would, like...
Put some effort into their Detroit-style pizza. No, this is like a really upsetting pizza to me. Why is there no sauce? I don't know if someone messed up on this because I've had their deep dish pizza before and it was significantly better. I don't know if this weighed down the dough, but there is a solid centimeter of uncooked dough in this. Yeah, pretty disappointing. But the crust isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. This is like bubblegum. This is raw pizza dough that we're eating right here. You think that's more bubblegummy than the Pizza Hut one? Yeah. I'm going to eat the Pizza Hut one again. Go for it. Dude, feel just...
The density. Feel the density of these pizzas. Oh my god. Right? The Papa Caesar's pizza is three times heavier per square inch. Wow. Which is nuts. Pizza Hut, like there's at least the leavening is working in the dough. Oh, I can see the uncooked. I can see the uncooked dough. You know what I want to do with the Pizza Hut pizza though? I just want to like...
Throw it on a griddle for three minutes. Sure. I got that. I want the bottom of this Pizza Hut pizza to have some sort of cook that isn't just like oil, soakage, and soft. Sure. Yeah. I know it's been steaming in a box for a while. Neither of these pizzas made me even one iota happy. I'm sorry. Pretty bummed that we... No, we had to test it. For science. Winner on three. One, two. Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut. Easy. Easy, easy. Well, I think we're at a point where we could make a decision. However...
Nicole, we got one more item to taste test here. That's right. We got one more. We have breadsticks and crazy bread and crazy sauce and marinara. Is there a pill for gluten intolerance? Pizza, pizza. Pizza? Okay, just eat the crazy bread. Pizza, pizza. Are you okay? Stop being weird. Sorry. Never. Break out the crazy bread. Is this what crazy bread looks like? Yeah, dude. It's very flick.
It's going to insert. This is called the Corona. I like the Little Caesars sauce. I think crazy sauce is my favorite. Breadsticks. This is very similar to Olive Garden's breadsticks. Yes. You're so right. I reject Pizza Hut's breadsticks. Why do you reject? They put all the flavors on it. It's not a fair fight. All the flavor. There's just a large dusting of just butter product.
Garlic, some sort of dried herb. Could be marjoram. You have marjoram honey? Dude, the dough recipe at Pizza Hut is so light. There's this Spanish bread called pan cristal. Have you ever had pan cristal? Never. Crazy high hydration dough and they just bake it super hot.
wide pockets, big gluten structures. It's like nothing I've ever had. It's so light. Pizza Hut breadsticks. This is light. Golly, it's like a feather. And that's coming from not years of Spanish baking technique, likely, but probably dough conditioners, right? Right. Tons, yeah. Tons. Azodicarbonamide. I don't even think it's a dough conditioner, but it's in yoga mats. All right, let me dip it in the sauce. I have my winner. It is clear as day.
For me, at least. I know what I'm doing. Me too. On three. One, two, Little Caesars. Little Caesars, baby! They got it on lock. That crazy bread with that crazy sauce. Super crazy. And this is like, obviously, just leftover pizza dough they're rolling about. Whatever. That's good. No, I'm saying pizza that's like running through a machine, adding all the dust and flavors on top. Still can't come close to how good crazy bread with crazy sauce is. I have to tell you, though. Go ahead. The total for the Little Caesars was $48 with like delivery and tip or whatever. Mm-hmm.
The Pizza Hut was $112. Oh, my God. For three pizzas? What the fruit? $112. Did you get scammed? No. Well, did you tip? Of course. Stop doing that. That's why you're... No, I'm kidding. It's a joke. I've always been a good tipper. Tip 20% plus. I always tip well. That's nuts. I do want to use this Pizza Hut breadstick as a hot dog bun. I will say that. That is such an insane price difference. I know. What is... I mean...
Little Caesars is doing national ads now, too. They used to not advertise as much. I mean, Pizza Hut obviously has massive, massive ad campaigns. They got, what's that, Daryl from The Office, Craig Robinson out there. Singing. But now Little Caesars got Eugene Levy, which that's who I want to sell me pizza, just an anxious Jewish dad. Why are we spending all that money on pizza? Go to Little Caesars. Little Caesars price point and I think their flavors, I'm going to give it to them in this discussion, this debate.
It's very painful for me to see Pizza Hut's incredible fall from grace over the last 15 years. However, I want to just issue that as a challenge to
to Yum! brands in general. I'm looking forward to Pizza Hut doing a revamp. I think there needs to be some soul-searching, figure out what they're really about, maybe bring back the special Mythical Kitchen flavor of Pizzone. Oh, yeah. Maybe that can save it. That said, Little Caesars, man, for the price point that they do it at, is really, really impressive. I'm a fan. Little Caesars gets the win.
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Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast. Pizza, pizza. Let's do some trivia. Yeah, let's do it. Sounds good to me. Yummy in my tummy got some trivia for you. What is the first pizzeria in America?
So obviously I know this one. Do you? Yeah. Oh, I don't think I do. It's actually been disputed that there's two. And I'm not sure what answer we're going to have in front of us. I'm stalling because the name is going to come to me eventually. Oh, no. She doesn't know it. I'm going to go ahead and say Old World Pizza or something. I'm going to say it's not Ray's, but I'm going to say Ray's in New York.
The correct answer is Lombardi's in New York City. Oh, Lombardi's. Scott, dude.
Dude, I knew that. I've seen that on so many travel channel shows. It's really bad. It's really bad that neither of us got it. It's really embarrassing. You know what's even more messed up? What? Embarrassingly, I messed up. There's a place called Lorenzo's in Philly that's like a famous slice shop. Yeah. Take a Lorenzo's slice, wrap it around cheesesteak, get the Philly taco, they call it. Are you that close? Or Philly burrito. Philly burrito? God, I'm so washed. I know. But anyways, I called Lorenzo's Lombardi's and another thing. Damn it. I'm so dumb. I'm mad about that, Maggie.
Mad. You'll get this one. I don't think so. What do the letters C and H stand for in C and H sugar? Cohen and Hobbes. I was like, cane and harvest. So close. They're both states. California and Hawaii.
The correct answer is California and Hawaii. Well, now this isn't trippy, but we're learning together. I never thought about that. Robot Maggie sounds different. It sounds like real Maggie. Last question. Thank you, Robot Maggie. Which fast food restaurant chain once tested bubblegum broccoli as a children's menu item? Sonic. Bubblegum broccoli. Who would have done something as crazy? It's a fast food restaurant chain, they're saying. Bob.
Bubble gum, Barack, who was doing exciting things? You know, one time I did an episode of International McDonald's and they put bubble gum in a McFlurry in Australia slash New Zealand, one of those. So maybe it might be that. I'm going to say Burger King. I feel like they were doing some bombastic things. The correct answer is McDonald's. McDonald's was right in front of us. We need to make more until one of us gets one right. I think my explanation was that I changed my answer. Oh, okay.
Yeah, I'd give it to you. So I get the point? Yeah, yeah. Okay, Nicole wins. I win. I am ashamed of that performance, and I think you as an audience deserve better, Nicole. I'm very proud of you. You deserve every second of that. Tastes like bubble gum. Hey, guess what? What? It's time for a little segment we like to call Opinions on the Casseroles.
Thanks a lot, I got an end there. Why don't you sing with me anymore? Okay, okay, one more time. Do it again. Okay, do it. Now it's time for a little segment we like to call Opinions are like casseroles Before we get into, Maggie, Josh, before we get into the questions and the opinions, I got a little game for you. Let's play this or that pizza styles. You ready? Let's do it. Okay. New York or Chicago deep dish? New York.
New York or Chicago Tavern? New York. New York or Neapolitan? New York. New York or Detroit style? New York. New York or Sicilian? New York. New York or St. Louis? New York. St. Louis isn't pizza. New York versus grandma style? New York. New York or New Haven? New Haven. New Haven or Altoona style? New Haven. New Haven or pizza bagel? New Haven. New Haven.
New Haven or Calzone? New Haven. Okay, well, New Haven is the pizza you get to take home. New Haven. Shout out to Michael Bolton. He loves New Haven style pizza. He's a big Connecticut coal-fired pizza guy. The singer? The singer, Michael Bolton.
I think Michael Bolton is a very, very handsome man. Yeah, older gentleman, but he's still got a nice earring. He's still got it. He's still got it. New Haven style pizza. God, what are they? Sally's a pizza. There's the other one. But there's like, some people consider New Haven to be like the pizza capital of America. Really? They make a very...
thin fire thin crust I believe it's a coal-fired pizza so you get this like deep rich black char on the bottom they're also known for making a clam pie I was gonna say is it the clam place okay good yeah yeah yeah but I mean that's not what they're only known for but to me it's just this beautiful it almost eats like a lechmejun you know like the Armenian pizza it's so thin the toppings are baked in there so hot I love it Maggie hit us with that first opinion
Hi, Josh. Hi, Nicole. This is Allie from St. Louis. And no, our pizza is not my unpopular food opinion, even though our pizza is the best. Girl. My unpopular food opinion is that when I make meatballs, I don't put anything in it except for seasonings. I just get, like, my ground beef in a bowl, and I season it. I mash it together. I shape them, and I make them in a pan. It wasn't until I was...
older that I realized people actually put stuff in it and I was really confused um because meat keeps its shape so yeah love the podcast thanks for what you do um yeah thanks
Thank you. Thank you. They're from St. Louis, so how much can we really trust their opinions? You've got to be nicer to St. Louisans. St. Lusans? St. Losers? No, no, St. Lusans? St. Louis? St. Louisians? St. Louisians. St. Louisians.
I have opinions. Talk about your opinions. One time, I made meatballs without anything added in there. No egg, no breadcrumb, just like you. Seasonings and meat. Let me tell you, my husband said, this is one of the worst things you've ever made. I love you. I'm telling you because you need to know. And let me tell you, never made another meatball without eggs or breadcrumbs again. What?
Well, I think what they're describing are balls of meat versus meatballs. Fair. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think you're right, man. You've taken meat. You've made it into a ball. It's perfectly fine. No, I think, so for instance, what are they called? Like polpettine? Polpetti. Polpetti, right? Polpetti is Italian for meatball. Tiny little meatball. And they're already pretty small, right? Italian meatballs. They're not making like, you go to a buca di beppo, they have a half pound of meatball, which is, I'd argue you're a loaf once you get past like four ounces. Sure thing.
You're at a personal pan meatloaf there. But there's another thing. I think they just call them pulpatine. There's other regional names for them. They're like tiny, tiny, tiny balls of meat. But they hand roll all of them. It's not like they're just cooking big hunks of ground beef. And they'll put them in things like soup. So if you take just like a ball of
beef like that and you cook it to fully well done, it's probably going to be a little bit tough. However, if you were to use something like that and really braise it in sauce so you're getting just like braised beef, it's going to break down those proteins, that's pretty good. And so like anything in life, there's nuance. It's all contextual. What you're doing with the meatball depends how you make it.
If you like it without eggs or bread, go for it, man. Not all meatballs in the world have eggs. I get a little funky with it sometimes, and I'll just put a baking soda in it. My dad does that. A little baking soda in the balls? That's nice. Do you do that with kubideh? Yeah, my dad does that. Yeah? Yeah. Onion juice and kubideh.
I was thinking about this the other day. What's up, man? I'm not stalling for anything, but this is a podcast about food. I can talk about food here. Of course you can. Of course you can. Of course you can. All these rules that we've learned watching Food Network chefs, watching people that we trust tell us stuff. I remember watching Bobby Flay make a meatball and he was like, you got to cook down your aromatics. If you don't cook down your aromatics, your garlic, your onions, and you add them to your meatballs, it's going to be terrible. Whatever. Uh,
And then I learned how you make kubideh, which you put raw onion juice in it. Yeah. And that's the good flavor. Such a good flavor. That's such a good flavor. Raw onion is like a staple in Persian cooking, yeah. It's incredible. And there's enzymes in the raw onion that like help break down the meat. It's just fantastic. And so I've started like interrogating those things that I've learned growing up. I started just grating some raw onion in my meatballs. So much flavor. I love it. So much flavor. So good. Onion tastes good. So good. Cooked onions are also great in meatballs. Context-dependent.
Hi, Josh and Nicole. My name is Maddie from Baltimore. Hi, Maddie. And my struggle meal is an Eggo waffle. I put it so it's lightly toasted. I slather it with peanut butter, a dollop of Greek yogurt, and then I fold it up like a taco and I eat it.
eat it usually running out the door to work and if I'm feeling bougie I'll go a chocolate chip Eggo and almond butter instead of peanut butter if I'm feeling extra fancy but yeah honestly I think it's a better alternative to like just eating a protein bar I think it's way more delicious but um
Yeah, thanks. Love the show. Go O's. Bye. Go O's. What does that mean? The O's are the Orioles, the Baltimore-based Major League Baseball team. Oh, I thought it was cereal related. They could just be a fan of Cheerios. We don't know. But I would guess context dependent. Anyways. Good, I'd eat that. Yeah, pretty good. I kind of don't love the combination of peanut butter and Greek yogurt, though. I do. It's the sourness with the peanut butter. I don't think I like. Sometimes it needs a little sour.
I think it's also why I prefer banana and peanut butter sandwiches, banana, peanut butter, honey over PB&J. Okay. You know what I mean? You don't like the sour? I'd say put some fresh fruit in that yogurt, but I know this is your struggle meal, so what are you going to slice up a strawberry? No, don't listen to him. Keep on keeping on. I would rather either have peanut butter and jelly in that waffle or Greek yogurt and jelly. I like the bougie version of this a lot. Choccy Chippies? Choccy Chippies almond butter. Chocolate and Greek yogurt have never done it for me.
Certain things I like acid with, certain things I don't like acid with. That said, you're right. It's more delicious than a protein bar. I eat so many protein bars that they now induce a gag reflex in me. That's what does it? That's almost the only thing that does it, yeah. Next. Firsty, I love the voicemail. I'm actually an international caller, and I'm from London. My name's Asp.
In my opinion, if you have like noodles, like instant ramen, and you like cook them until they're really like, not really mushy, but like until they're soft, and then you fry it like an omelette. That's my hot take. Oh my god, that is the hottest take of all time. You talk like you're from London.
You can't do that. You can't do that to our international callers. What movie is that even from? Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It sure is. Duh. Is it Jonah Hill? No, it's Paul.
It's Paul Rudd and Russell Brand. You're right. You're right. You should be ashamed. You should be ashamed. Anyways, wait. Okay, so soft, soft, soft noodles. Omelet it up. Frying like an omelet. Yum. This is... Mazzabri. It's mazzabri. It's mazzabri. I say mazzabri. You say mazzabri. Still, we're friends. I think what you've done is created a unique...
texture unlike anything that I've ever experienced before. Especially I'm curious how those soft wet noodles react to hot oil. I'm sure there's egg as a binder. They're just not talking about it. I don't know. They might just be putting because you've ever just like leftover noodles like you let your ramen sit. You didn't finish it. No I never not finish my ramen. Oh it happens to me all the time. It's so distracting. But you know you take that you toss in your frying pan. I mean I think you've created a purely unique food which is so difficult. So you know there's like
The Caesar salad, right? Oh, please. Oh, please. Like a hundred years ago. Oh, my God. Okay, you know what we should do? Yeah, go ahead. You know how there's a little Caesars? We should make a pizza chain called Big Brutus. Called Big Brutus? Because et tu, Brute? Oh, is that Mark Anthony? No, Brutus is the guy who killed Caesar. Yeah, we should make... We should... Big Brutus Pizza. Big Brutus. Big Brutus Pizza. Big Brutus Pizza. Big Brutus. I like that. What's our catchphrase? I'm big. Stabby, stabby. Stabby.
It should just be et tu. Et tu pizza? Oh, gosh. Terrible idea. Well, I'm glad to be home. All of your ideas are winners. I'm very sleepy. I would like to go home and take a nappy nap. Me too. Sounds great. You guys, all of us, go home and nap. You, people at home, take a nap. Have you taken a nap lately? When's the last time you took a nap?
took a nap. I nap every weekend, almost every day and every weekend. Every day? Every day that I'm not at work, I'm taking a nap between like 3 and 5 p.m. Wow. Yeah. Is that not normal? It's a siesta, they call it in España. A siesta. I studied abroad in Barcelona. In Barcelona.
Treat yourself to watching more of our podcast. Thanks so much, Nicole. And on that note, thank you for listening to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We got new audio-only episodes every Wednesday and a video-only version here every Sunday. Spend your Sundays with us. We're your Sunday best. And if you want, you can just go to bed. Just shut up and go to bed. Wait, no. Maggie, I need three minutes. Okay. Okay. Oh, my God.
If you're still here, someone, there was an opinion casserole on a podcast a couple weeks ago, and somebody wrote in. They wrote in, and they told me something. They said, hi, this is at Corinne Ann 20. Hi, just listened to this week's episode for clarification on the Greek sauce. Nicole, listen. Oh!
Oh, it's Greek fries? How could I forget Greek fries? I remember everything about anything all the time. Chili and Greek sauce are not the same. There's a pretty large Greek population where I am in northwestern Pennsylvania. I said that! Greek sauce is beef and or lamb that's cooked for a really long period of time to the point that the meat's broken down into the tiniest little pieces. It's tomato-based sauce.
but has warmer spices than traditional chili. That sauce is then put over fries or a hot dog and a hamburger. Can have onions as well. So first, this person messaged me that and I was furious because I said, you're describing chili. You're describing what Skyline Chili is. It's warm spices. It's tomato. It's broken down meat. But then I was like, Josh, this is more a...
reflection on yourself that it is this nice helpful person telling you about Greek sauce, which is what they call it. Corinne is from Erie, Pennsylvania. And I went on this little deep dive on it and it's created this weird little micro regionalism of calling what most people call chili because there's no monolith of what chili is. So when I say it's different from chili, it's like, well, what do you mean chili? This is a what America has decided chili means. This is now a type of chili.
it's a tomato-based meat sauce with spices that you're putting on hot dogs. That's what we call chili. Yeah. Right? But it is a very unique moniker called Greek sauce. And that's fascinating. What if I told you I said a very similar thing in the podcast, but now my information was all corroborated with Corinne? What did you say in the podcast? Run the tape back. I said, I don't, what do you mean right now? I said that there's probably a large Greek population where this person is and it's chili.
I said something. Didn't I say that? Yeah. Was that what she said? Isn't that what they said? Well, they said that and other things. If you want to be featured on Opinions by Castros, hit us up at 833-DOGPOD1. Take us home, Josh. And for more videos, if you'd like to see in our face, you can go over to Mythical Kitchen on the YouTube. Check us out on TikTok, on Instagram. Go to Tubi. We're on Tubi yet? We are on Tubi. Are we on Tubi? We should be on Tubi. Maybe. What are we on? Roku?
We're on Roku. Roku, fast channel. Most fast channels. We get... V-O-D. Video on demand. We'll see you next time.